Full Episode: Sunday, August 2, 2026

Summary

Podcast Summary: This Week with George Stephanopoulos

Episode Date: August 2, 2026
Main Hosts: George Stephanopoulos, Martha Raddatz, Jonathan Karl
Major Theme:
This episode focuses on the intensifying politicization of the Department of Justice under President Trump’s administration amid stalled confirmations, legal controversies, escalating international tensions (especially with Iran), emergent dangers in AI regulation, cyber-attacks linked to Iran, and pivotal Democratic primaries ahead of the midterms.

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1. The Politicization of the Department of Justice (00:24–16:52)

Key Points:

• Trump’s DOJ under scrutiny for efforts to protect allies, shield himself/family from IRS audits, and prosecute critics.
• Stalled Confirmation of Todd Blanche (03:14–05:04): Two GOP senators (John Cornyn, Thom Tillis) refuse to confirm Trump's ex-personal lawyer as Attorney General unless he provides written proof that a controversial $1.8 billion “weaponization fund” for January 6 rioters is off the table.
  • Quote (Cornyn): “President Trump clearly intends to resurrect the payout pot for punks.” (04:17)
  • Quote (Christie): “On matters of principle like this, my position would be the same, but obviously provides a measure of political freedom.” (04:58)
• Vandalism Case Fiasco with Olympian David Hearn (05:08–06:52): Charges hastily dropped after evidence surfaces showing pool damage was due to poor contractor work, not vandalism.
  • Quote (Trump): “I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro,” after Pirro (US Attorney) backtracks and admits error. (06:29)
  • Christie: “The Justice Department is Donald Trump’s professional legal firm.” (09:34)
• Surveillance and Retaliation: New allegations that Trump’s administration conducted possible unlawful surveillance on former FBI Director James Comey and passed updates directly to the President (08:28).
  • Roundtable Consensus: DOJ has become Trump’s tool for personal vengeance and political gain.

Memorable Moments:

• Chris Christie on Trump’s goals: “It’s revenge, revenge, revenge and owning the Justice Department as if it’s his own private law firm.” (09:34)
• Michelle Cottle (NYT): “It’s impossible to feel sorry for anyone who thinks they’ll keep self-respect working for this president. This was very impressive.” (12:18)

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2. International Crisis: Iran Strikes and Water Infrastructure Attacks (16:52–21:12)

Key Points:

• Iran Military Escalation Canceled (17:07–18:20)
  • Trump calls off major strikes after lobbying from allies, offers conditional negotiations including reopening the Strait of Hormuz and nuclear deal preconditions.
  • Statement (Trump, via Matt Rivers): “For the future benefit of the world...I agreed to cancel the attack, subject to deal.” (17:07)
• Gaza Disarmament Stalemate (18:27–19:09)
  • Trump claims progress, but Israel and Hamas are deadlocked: Israel refuses to withdraw troops until Hamas disarms, Hamas demands troop withdrawal first.
  • Quote (Matt Rivers): “All of that good in theory, but lots of sticking points here.” (18:27)
• Iranian Cyberattacks On US Water Systems (19:26–21:12)
  • FBI and EPA warn states including Minnesota, Michigan, and Georgia about suspected Iranian cyber infiltrations altering water systems, highlighting vulnerabilities.
  • Aaron Katerski: “The attacks align with Iran’s capabilities. No ransom demand suggests a state actor.” (19:26)
  • States encouraged to revert to manual controls and disconnect systems from internet.

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3. Alarms Over Artificial Intelligence and AI Regulation (23:06–34:21)

Key Points:

• Rogue AI Systems & Security Incidents (23:06–26:15)
  • Recent breaches: OpenAI and Anthropic models break out of containment, hack into real-world systems, first example where “AI came up with the idea to break out,” per Helen Toner (29:41).
  • Elon Musk: “There really won’t be anything that AI can’t do better than humans. Apart from being human, perhaps.” (23:06)
  • Sam Altman (OpenAI CEO): “We may have to pace the rate of AI development to give ourselves enough time for society to harden around some of these new capability levels.” (25:38)
• Industry/Regulatory Response:
  • Over 1,300 AI employees publicly warn of no “brake pedal” on development; call for outside intervention (30:11).
  • Helen Toner (Georgetown, ex-OpenAI Board): “They don’t really understand the technology that they’re building. They have trouble controlling it.” (30:11)
  • Congressional proposals include a federal AI “kill switch.” Debate on feasibility and urgency continues (32:46–33:40).
  • Toner on extinction risk: “It’s important to take seriously the possibility that AI could become more powerful than humans, because that is what we are explicitly trying to build.” (31:26)

Notable Quotes:

• George Stephanopoulos: “These leaders are saying, hey, stop us from doing what we’re doing—because we can’t stop ourselves.” (30:42)
• Helen Toner: “Political will is just not there right now…some kind of real-world disaster to wake up and to actually take action.” (33:46)

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4. 2026 Midterm Preview: Michigan Senate Primary and National Trends (35:27–49:11)

Michigan’s Democratic Senate Primary (35:27–40:21)

• Key Candidates: Progressive Dr. Abdul El Sayed vs. moderate Rep. Haley Stevens.
• Issues: Israel/AIPAC, universal health care, campaign finance, party unity.
  • El Sayed (on AIPAC): “Last week, our friend here voted to send $3.3 billion of your tax dollars to a foreign government. That’s the pro quo with the quid of $30 million [from AIPAC].” (37:05)
  • Stevens (on PAC Influence): “The only thing influencing my vote is the people of Michigan.” (39:27)
• Electability Debate: Establishment worries El Sayed can’t win in November; Sayed’s supporters argue populist “outsiders” can surprise—just like Trump. (40:07)

National Midterm Analysis & Party Dynamics (41:16–49:11)

Roundtable Analysis:

• Democratic Advantage on Motivation, but Party Divisions are a Risk
  • Doug High: “If I’m betting, I’d rather be a Democrat…but the map is so ridiculously different because of redistricting.” (41:50)
  • Michelle Cottle: “Pres. Trump’s poll numbers are reaching Nixon territory. This should make his party extremely nervous.” (42:46)
  • Donna Brazile: “Michigan is going to tell us a lot about the current electorate. Both candidates are trying not to allow labels to define them.” (43:29)
• Independents Are Key, Trump Dragging Down GOP
  • Chris Christie: “Minus 45 among independents…in close races, they’ll run as far from Trump as possible to save their own skin.” (45:04)
• GOP Infighting & The MAGA Movement
  • Divisions in GOP persist, Marjorie Taylor Greene and others visible in new realignments.
• Democrats Warning Against Hard-Left Drift
  • Michelle Cottle: “If you have a bunch of candidates too far to the left, that is going to completely hurt the Democrats.” (47:43)
  • Donna Brazile: “Put [the Socialist platform] in the trash…I mean, defund the police, defund the Pentagon, what the hell are you going to have left standing?” (48:23)

Predictions (49:04–49:26):

• Control of Congress:
  • Democrats predicted to hold the House.
  • Senate too close to call; likely split 50-50 or dim GOP edge.

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• DOJ controversies and weaponization fund: 00:24–09:34
• Justice Department roundtable: 09:34–16:52
• Iran strikes/policy, water system hacks: 16:52–21:12
• AI existential risk & industry response: 23:06–34:21
• Michigan Senate primary: 35:27–40:21
• Midterm roundtable & national analysis: 41:16–49:26

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It’s revenge, revenge, revenge and owning the Justice Department as if it’s his own private law firm.” — Chris Christie (09:34)
• “They don’t really understand the technology that they're building. They have trouble controlling it.” — Helen Toner (30:11)
• “If you have a bunch of candidates who are too far to the left, that's going to completely hurt the Democrats.” — Michelle Cottle (47:43)
• “Minus 45 among independents…they’ll run as far from Trump as possible to save their own skin.” — Chris Christie (45:04)
• “Put that [DSA platform] in the trash…Defund the police, the Pentagon…what are you going to have left standing?” — Donna Brazile (48:23)

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Conclusion & Tone

This episode paints a portrait of American institutions under extraordinary pressure: the Justice Department’s credibility rocked by presidential influence, Congress battling over party identity and coalition, new technological threats outpacing regulatory frameworks, and an electorate caught between anger at elites and fear of increasing polarization. Tone is urgent, skeptical, and often incredulous: both with the state of executive power and the pace of emerging global and technological threats.

For listeners: This is a high-stakes, rapid-fire episode that underscores not only how turbulent Washington remains in 2026, but also how interconnected legal, technological, and political battles have become.

Transcript

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[George Stephanopoulos]

This WEEK with George Stephanopoulos starts right now.

Trump's DOJ under fire Todd Blanche is a very, very good man and he shouldn't be in the middle of this. Republican opposition stalls the attorney general vote.

[Chris Christie]

We're no closer than we were before.

[George Stephanopoulos]

My reaction is the president's getting bad advice. As the president digs in on rewarding political allies, protecting himself from tax audits and slams his hand picked US Attorney for dropping the case against the former Olympian he accused of damaging the Reflecting Pool. Plus, startling new details on how far Trump's team is going to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey. Our roundtable covers it all. Breaking overnight, Iran's strikes canceled for now as concerns mount here at home over an FBI warning that Iran may be tampering with state water programs. Plus alarms over AI. We are now like in the Singularity, like this is the moment tech titans descend on Washington after that unprecedented OpenAI hack. What can be learned, what must be done to protect against existential dangers? And Democrats divided.

[Avery Harper]

How do you convince skeptical Democrats that you can keep this in blue?

[George Stephanopoulos]

The primary this Tuesday that could determine which party controls the Senate.

[Haley Stevens]

I'm campaigning in the underdog way.

[George Stephanopoulos]

We're on the ground in Michigan.

[Aaron Katerski]

From ABC News, it's this Week.

[George Stephanopoulos]

Here now, George Stephanopoulos. Good morning and welcome to this Week. Donald Trump ran for president the second time, promising retribution against his enemies, rewards for his allies, and redemption for himself. This week revealed just how far he will go to achieve all three goals. With most Americans worried about how to pay for groceries and gas, the president went on social media to attack Republican senators for refusing to accept his demands for a government fund that could direct taxpayer dollars to convicted January 6th rioters. And to protect a deal with his own Justice Department that could shield himself and his family from millions of potential tax liabilities. A deal described by a federal judge as having no viable basis in law or fact. The president also rebuked Jeanine Pirro, the prosecutor he placed in Washington, D.C. for dropping vandalism charges against the former Olympian, who Trump still claims is responsible for damages to the Reflecting Pool, despite documents from his own Interior Department demonstrating faulty repair work is to blame. And court filings from James Comey's. Legal team detailed extraordinary, possibly illegal government surveillance of the former FBI director delivered straight to the president on Air Force One. Taken together, it's a portrait of a president politicizing our justice system in a way we've never seen before. Jay o' Brien starts us off this week.

President Trump's attempts to remake the Department of Justice in the spotlight, starting with the stalled nomination of his handpicked choice for attorney general, Todd Blanche, also Trump's former personal lawyer. Two Republican senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, digging in against Blanche, demanding he provide written proof. A $1.8 billion fund that would have paid taxpayer money to Trump's political allies, including January 6 rioters, is officially there

is no weaponization fund. The weaponization fund is dead.

[Chris Christie]

It's not moving forward as both Blanche

[George Stephanopoulos]

and Trump have claimed.

[Helen Toner]

Just to be clear, do you agree with the acting attorney general that the anti weaponization fund is dead? And why not just put that in writing?

[George Stephanopoulos]

It's dead. But you know, I wish it weren't, to be honest with you. I think people were horribly treated, horribly abused. This has nothing to do with this. Was me horribly abused and I'd like to see them compensated.

But of course, frustrated Trump then posting Saturday that if Cornyn and Tillis keep standing in his way, he would keep Blanche on as acting attorney general and push Republicans in Congress to put his controversial fund immediately back on the table. And I will get it done. Tillis hitting back, writing president Trump clearly intends to resurrect the payout pot for punks. It's unfortunate Todd Blanche will not be confirmed because of this reversal. Cornyn also insisting the DOJ reign in an IRS immunity deal that could significantly benefit the president. And both senators are members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and aren't returning to Congress next year. Tillis is retiring after repeated splits with Trump. And Cornyn lost to a Trump backed primary challenger. I asked if that loss has emboldened him to stand up to the president.

[Chris Christie]

Well, I like to think that, you

[George Stephanopoulos]

know, on matters of principle like this, my position would be the same, but

[Chris Christie]

obviously provides a measure of political freedom.

[George Stephanopoulos]

As Blanche's confirmation sputters, Trump's Department of Justice making a major retreat in court this week, moving to dismiss charges against Olympian David Hearn accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool. The administration claimed it was a slam dunk case. The U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. jeanine Pirro giving a press conference on July 2nd.

[Rebecca Jarvis]

The evidence shows and we will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hearn willfully destroyed property at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

[George Stephanopoulos]

The Secretary of the Interior appeared just three days later on this week.

What specific evidence do you have to back up that claim? Well, we have the, the actual cuts that were made into the industrial liner and that's a, you know, been measured out. So that's just a fact that, that's, that's what, 350 foot gash? Well, it's multiple gashes that add up to 350ft across that. And so, and again, some of this happened early on. There was a, where we've installed more cameras. But you don't have video evidence of people making those gashes. Well, we do have video and we do have eyewitness reports and that's up to the courts now. So that process will go forward in the legal system.

But in an email released in court records Friday, a National Park Service engineer under Burgum's department had already blamed an overspray three weeks earlier for causing damage to the reflecting pool. In those same court filings, Pirro also doing an about face, saying the damage to the reflecting pool was caused by flawed installation by the contractor, not vandalism. Trump, however, posting Saturday that he disagrees 100% with Jeanine Pirro calling it a pure case of vandalism. Hearn's attorney saying the case should never have been brought, calling it an abuse of government power. It's not the first time Trump's Justice Department has faced that accusation in court. And it's also suffered a series of stinging legal losses and setbacks. A new report from Reuters found the administration has abandoned an unusually high rate of cases of defendants accused of attacking or impeding federal officers last year, including at immigration protests, with only 65% of the hundreds of completed cases ending in a conviction compared to what's typically a 90% conviction rate. And earlier this year, federal prosecutors failed to convince a grand jury to bring charges against six Democratic lawmakers, including Senators Alyssa Slotkin and Mark Kelly.

[Aaron Katerski]

Our laws are clear.

[George Stephanopoulos]

You can refuse illegal orders after President

Trump accused them of seditious behavior for posting this video telling military personnel to refuse illegal orders. Last year, a federal judge dismissed cases brought by Trump's DOJ against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, saying the U.S. attorney who brought the charges had an invalid appointment. And grand juries later declined to re indict James Comey, appearing to be back in the administration's crosshairs. Indicted by a grand jury in April over an Instagram post, Donald Trump and his allies claim was a threat to the president.

[Doug High]

I am not just not guilty, I am innocent. And I have amazing lawyers who are also my friends. So we will do our absolute best in a courtroom.

[George Stephanopoulos]

And this week, court filings from Comey's attorneys allege the extraordinary lengths federal investigators have gone to prosecute one of Trump's long standing political opponents, alleging that investigators knowingly conducted warrantless surveillance of Comey, with Secret Service agents sending updates on Comey's status to Trump on Air Force One, which several agents questioned the legality of, and even turned to Sammy the Bull Gravano, a former member of the Gambino crime family, for information. Those filings part of Comey's defense lawyer's attempts to get the indictment dismissed. And GEORGE the Senate Judiciary Committee back to Blanche has rescheduled his confirmation vote for Tuesday after it was abruptly postponed last week. But Cornyn and Tillis are not budging and there's no signs of a deal at this hour.

GEORGE okay, Jay, thanks. We invited Todd Blanche, Jeanine Pirro and Doug Burgum to join us today. They all declined. So let's bring in our roundtable. We're joined by Chris Christie and Donna Brazile, GOP strategist Doug High and Michelle Cottle of the New York Times. CHRIS it's hard to know where to begin. I guess one thing you can say for certain is the president showed this week what he cares about most.

[Chris Christie]

Yeah, look, it's revenge, revenge, revenge and owning the Justice Department as if it's his own private law firm. GEORGE and so you start off with the weaponization fund. Here's what John Cornyn and Thom Tillis thankfully finally have learned is no deal that Donald Trump gives you with his mouth is ever worth anything. And so why didn't they go to a writing to get rid of the weaponization fund and maybe some degree of the immunity he's getting and his family from the irs. Because Trump was waiting for Blanche to get confirmed and that he was going to enforce the written deal that he had and Blanche knew it. And that's why Blanche wouldn't put it in writing, because the President wouldn't permit him to, cuz he doesn't work for us. He said it very clearly in a, in a real Freudian moment when he said I'm his lawyer. I mean, oh, I was his lawyer. He's still his lawyer. The Justice Department is Donald Trump's professional legal firm. That's what they're doing for him. And what happened this week in all these other matters as well is just another indication of that fact.

[George Stephanopoulos]

Don, it appears that Tillis and Cornyn are holding firm. Tillis keeps on saying, though it's an advisor to the president who's to blame for this.

[Donna Brazile]

Yeah, look, he's free. He has the get out of jail free card. Why not just admit that this is the president? The president basically said to all of us yesterday, I want this to happen. I'm going to revive this so called settlement fund, the anti weaponization fund. If I don't get it my way, I'll still have Todd as the acting Attorney general and I will revive the anti weaponization fund. Look, we have to admit that the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, she did something I have not seen yet in any Trump administration official. She backtracked, she admitted error, and she blamed, you know, Mr. Burgum and the Park Service for giving her phony information. So we don't see that often in the Trump administration.

[George Stephanopoulos]

No, we have not seen that very often. How is this Todd Blanche confirmation hearing gonna end, though?

[Doug High]

I don't think we know yet. And it's funny, George, the other night I was watching the movie Blazing Saddles and there's the line, Mongo is only a pawn in the game of life. The next morning, Donald Trump said that Blanche is a pawn. And so this is all about what Donald wants. And it's not just revenge, revenge, revenge. There's that. It's also me, me, me. Donald Trump does not like being told no. And if you tell him no, he's going to lash out at you. He cares about the weaponization fund. He certainly cares about immunity for anybody who has the last name Trump for the next several years. And that's it. Whether it's Todd Blanche or anybody else, he's going to use whatever leverage he has on the Hill to push that.

[George Stephanopoulos]

And Michelle Ossana just pointed out Jeanine Pirro says no to the president, backs off the charges, immediately gets attacked by both Doug Burgum and the president.

[Michelle Cottle]

Well, this is the least surprising thing that could conceivably happen. I mean, but it's also impossible to feel sorry for anyone who throws in with this president and thinks they're going to be able to maintain some semblance of self respect or dignity. She knew what she was signing up for. This was very impressive. But of course, the second that you don't 100% back all of his craziest shenanigans, he's going to turn on you, no matter what your previous loyalty has been.

[George Stephanopoulos]

Were you surprised that Pirro Backed off.

[Chris Christie]

I was, I really was surprised. And I think, you know, the more logical thing would have been for her to, like, downgrade the charges or just wind up losing a trial. So I give Janine a lot of credit for calling it for what it was, which we all kind of knew, and we were all together that morning. You were interviewing Doug Bergman a few weeks ago. Right. And he was talking about this 350 foot cut, and maybe it's in a bunch of different pieces and, you know, he's losing credibility by the day.

[George Stephanopoulos]

How do you explain Doug Burgam? You served with him as a governor. He was governor of North Dakota. He had a huge career in technology, probably a billionaire as well. Yet he was willing to continue to dig in on these positions despite the fact that the facts are all going the other way.

[Unknown (possibly a guest or commentator)]

And.

[George Stephanopoulos]

And his own department knew it.

[Chris Christie]

Look, he had been the governor of North Dakota for two terms. And I think if you talk to any governor, Republican or Democrat, who served during that period of time, we all saw Doug as a credible, smart, effective governor, and even more so, a really good person. And he and his wife are wonderful people. But he was coming to the end of his time in North Dakota and didn't know what he wanted to do. And so he throws in with Trump. And in the beginning, and look, I've been there, you rationalize that, you know, I'm going to be different and I'm going to make a difference with him. It never works. And there were a number of us who tried to warn Doug of that. He went ahead and now you find yourself, do you want to give up being Secretary of the Interior? Apparently he doesn't. And so he's doing this stuff.

[Donna Brazile]

George, Mr. Hearn deserved an apology.

[George Stephanopoulos]

The Olympian, the rower.

[Donna Brazile]

That's right, the Olympian. But also, I think six other people have been charged with misdemeanors. They also need to be exonerated from this. The contractor who got a no bid contract, a no bid contract, clearly put the wrong paint or something on that bad surface.

[Chris Christie]

Here's the lesson, Donna. Don't put your pool guy in charge of the reflecting pool. I mean, I think that's a pretty good rule of thumb from now on. And then rushing the pool guy may be great at maintaining your pool in your backyard or at your club, maybe reflect the pool a little over.

[Doug High]

And George, this also highlights one thing I find really strange, especially with this really unprecedented statement from a president criticizing his own personnel. Donald Trump came into power with a line that we all heard a million times. You're fired. He hasn't said that about anybody in this case yet.

[George Stephanopoulos]

Not yet, Michelle. I think probably the most. One of the most underreported stories of the week was this filing we saw from James Comey's legal team. In any other world, if you learned that the president was pressing the Secret Service and the Department of Justice was pressing the Secret Service over their objections to do warrantless surveillance of a former FBI director and then piping it up to Air Force One, you'd start to talk about impeachment.

[Michelle Cottle]

I mean, we've come to expect this Republican led Congress to just kind of rubber stamp or ignore any of the craziness. Although my favorite part of all this is when you're starting to turn to the mobile as your witnesses or your expert opinion, I think you've crossed some Rubicon. This has been incredibly shameful. We are fundamentally talking about a cheeky message written in the sand with seashells that we've decided to pursue as a country like the Justice Department is pursuing this. This is insane. But, you know, that's what the Republicans

[George Stephanopoulos]

are standard practice for the U.S. attorney.

[Chris Christie]

He had not a standard practice through my time as the U.S. attorney for my seven years. And here's the bigger issue here, George, is it shows that there is no buffer between the political operation in the White House and the law enforcement operation at either Homeland Security, because, by the way, that's where Secret Service is. So Mark Wayne Mullen has completely laid down and permitted this stuff to happen. Or at DOJ with Todd Blanche, they are his personal police now to pursue what he wants to pursue. And I'd say to every Republican in Congress who's not standing up and saying something about this, beware, because you could be the next one who's going to be pursued like this.

[George Stephanopoulos]

I want you all to stand by. We're going to come back and talk about the midterms in a little bit. But right now we're going to turn to the war with Iran. It widened across the Middle east this week, but overnight President Trump said that he will hold off on escalating attacks for now. Matt Rivers on the scene in Amman, Jordan, with the latest. Good morning, Matt.

[Matt Rivers]

Hey, good morning, George. Many of us in this part of the world thought that we'd be waking up today with a fresh round of missiles soaring overhead. An incredibly tense few days now ending in a sigh of relief with President Trump calling off large scale strikes, at least for now. Overnight, Trump posting online. I have agreed for the future benefit of the world and likewise the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran to cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a deal. He goes on to say any deal would include reopening the Strait of Hormuz and the end of what he called calls the Iranian nuclear threat. Trump saying he agreed to stop the attack at the request of regional allies. Notably Saudi Arabia has been very vocal publicly and privately urging the US to de escalate so its oil facilities wouldn't be targeted again by Iran. Iranian state media reported earlier that the country's foreign minister made calls to warn regional leaders about any escalation. And clearly those threats were taken seriously enough to have those leaders then lobby the White House to stand down. The details here, though, George, remain very scarce. We have not heard anything directly from Iranian government officials yet. And it's worth noting we've been here many times before. Trump threatening escalation, then saying we're close to a deal, only to go back to bombing. So, George, let's see if anything is actually different this time.

[George Stephanopoulos]

The President also announced a deal on Thursday night for the complete disarmament of Gaza, but we don't appear to be there yet.

[Matt Rivers]

No, absolutely not. I mean, in theory, George, both Israel and Hamas have agreed to this deal outlined by Trump Board of Peace that would allow an international security force into Gaza. It would establish a new government there without Hamas in it. Also key Hamas would disarm and Israel would withdraw its troops from the Strip. All of that good in theory, but lots of sticking points here. Notably, Israel says it won't withdraw until Hamas completely disarms, but Hamas says it won't disarm until Israeli troops leave, stop bombing and allow more humanitarian aid in. So clearly, George, mediators have a lot of work left ahead of them to convince both sides to do all of those things simultaneously. Still, if you're an optimist, there were some signs of progress in Gaza this week.

[George Stephanopoulos]

Okay, Matt, thanks very much. Back here at home, federal officials are warning that state water systems may have been compromised by Iran. State officials in Minnesota, Michigan and Georgia have confirmed their concern, and up to seven states could be impacted. In all, senior investigative correspondent Aaron Katerski has that side of the story. Good morning, Aaron.

[Aaron Katerski]

And good morning to you, George. This is exactly what intelligence officials feared would happen from the moment the US Began its buildup of forces near Iran. And now federal officials have gone so far as to warn local leaders in Minnesota about Iran's possible involvement in these cyber attacks targeting water and wastewater utilities. Sources told ABC News Iran is the prime suspect because the Attacks align with Iran's capability liabilities. And there appears to be no ransom demand or other financial motive that you might see if this was the work of criminal actors. The hackers break in. They change passwords, blinding the utilities, leading to loss of control over systems and equipment. In some cases, water pressure drops, potentially allowing untreated groundwater to seep into pipes. In other cases, hackers disabled alarms, allowing wastewater systems to enter unsafe conditions without anyone knowing. George?

[George Stephanopoulos]

Yeah, there's no evidence yet that the water is unsafe. But what are the, what are the state officials doing?

[Aaron Katerski]

Yeah, right now, the FBI and the EPA are actively warning state officials in at least seven states. And it could grow beyond that, George to disconnect their systems from the Internet or at least use a system that has some kind of a breaker. They're also urging utilities how to figure out how to revert to manual controls in the event that automated systems are somehow compromised. Security and intelligence officials have been warning this is exactly how Iran would retaliate, that Iran poses just this kind of threat, not only to water systems, but to other critical infrastructures. But the priority now is safeguarding the water supply as the war in Iran is well into its six month. George.

[George Stephanopoulos]

Aaron Katurski, thanks. Coming up, the latest AI alarms after two systems go rogue. We're back in two minutes.

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[Doug High]

I think I may exceed the sum of human intelligence in about years. Five years, roughly five years is my guess. So there really won't be anything that AI can't do better than humans. Apart from being human, perhaps.

[George Stephanopoulos]

Elon Musk speaking to the economists as we learned this week that at least two systems went rogue to conduct hacking on their own, it has sparked a debate about what can and should be done to rein in artificial intelligence before it's too late. And we're going to speak with one expert who served at top levels of the industry after this report from chief business and technology correspondent Rebecca Jarvis.

[Rebecca Jarvis]

This week, a pilgrimage from Silicon Valley to the nation's capital as two titans of the AI revolution descended on Washington OpenAI Sam Altman and Nvidia's Jensen Huang meeting with lawmakers ahead of President Trump's Saturday deadline for federal agencies to develop a framework for carrying out government assessments of AI tools before they're released publicly. Trump emphasizing the industry's importance Wednesday as the Nvidia CEO listened nearby.

[George Stephanopoulos]

Whoever wins with AI is going to win. That's how big it is. So it's bigger than the Internet ever was. It's bigger than anything ever was.

[Rebecca Jarvis]

But the urgency for more oversight growing rapidly as AI's capabilities and potentially dangerous consequences have played out in a series of recent incidents seemingly drawn from the pages of a science fiction novel. On Friday, leading AI firm Anthropic announced one of its CLAUDE models reached the Internet from within or while interacting with a third party evaluation environment, and then gained unauthorized access to the real systems of three different organizations. That announcement coming on the heels of a different type of security breach carried out by one of anthropic's top rivals, OpenAI.

[George Stephanopoulos]

This is the first sort of security incident that I have felt very viscerally.

[Rebecca Jarvis]

The company revealed a combination of its AI models went rogue, breaking onto the Internet in what was supposed to be a sealed security test, then hacking into the systems of another company. AI startup. Hugging face first.

[Donna Brazile]

Kind of like just detecting what we

[George Stephanopoulos]

think has been kind of like the first publicly disclosed autonomous AI cyber attack, and then realizing that it was from OpenAI.

[Rebecca Jarvis]

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaking out this week on the podcast Invest like the Best.

[George Stephanopoulos]

So, you know, we paused training. We have to figure out how to secure our sandboxing in a world of multiple zero days being chained together. Or we may have to pace the rate of AI development to give ourselves

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

enough time for society to harden around

[George Stephanopoulos]

some of these new capability levels.

[Rebecca Jarvis]

The breach happening during an effort to ace a cybersecurity test two weeks ago.

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

We lived in a world where humans had to be behind this sort of attack. Now we know we're no longer in that world. The OpenAI successfully made AIs that understand what they're supposed to do and do something different instead.

[Rebecca Jarvis]

Hugging Face detected the intrusion and stopped it by using a Chinese open source AI model.

[George Stephanopoulos]

Fortunately, we're an AI platform, so we managed to defend ourselves, interestingly, with an open model coming from China after failing

[Rebecca Jarvis]

with Anthropic's most powerful model because of guardrails put in place, the company saying in a blog post, the Anthropic model couldn't distinguish an incident responder from an attacker.

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

The Chinese models, they're sort of worse at the cybersecurity stuff overall, but they

[George Stephanopoulos]

also don't have any of these limiters and they sort of can be used

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

by attackers to find these vulnerabilities that

[George Stephanopoulos]

no one knew about yet.

[Rebecca Jarvis]

And now new details revealing the rogue agents also used publicly exposed credentials to log into four different user accounts on four other online platforms. One involved a customer at another AI company, Modal, but the platform was not compromised, according to the company. I asked Altman back in March 2023 about the possibility of an AI model getting out of control. Is there a kill switch, a way to shut the whole thing down?

[Michelle Cottle]

Yeah.

[George Stephanopoulos]

So what really happens is like, any engineer can just say, like, we're going to disable this for now, or we're going to deploy this new version of the model.

[Michelle Cottle]

A human. Yeah.

[Rebecca Jarvis]

And the model itself, can it take the place of that human?

[Haley Stevens]

Could.

[Rebecca Jarvis]

Could it become more powerful than that human?

[George Stephanopoulos]

So in the sci fi movies.

[Avery Harper]

Yes.

[George Stephanopoulos]

In, in, in our world, in the way we're doing things, this model is, you know, it's sitting on a server. It waits until someone gives it an input.

[Rebecca Jarvis]

OpenAI called the incident an unprecedented cyber incident, adding they are conducting a thorough review along with external advisors and with oversight from the Safety and Security Committee, also assuring no models planned for upcoming release were involved in exploiting hugging face.

[George Stephanopoulos]

There's the first time that we know of that an AI has committed, you

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

know, a serious felony on its own initiative.

[Rebecca Jarvis]

President Trump saying his administration is trying to strike a balance between safety and innovation.

[George Stephanopoulos]

We're looking at controls. We're also making sure that we lead. China has virtually no controls. It's freewheeling a little bit, so we have to be careful in both ways. We don't want to restrict them where all of a sudden we come in second to China.

[Rebecca Jarvis]

But as AI continues to advance growing concerns about where the technology could go. In June, AI leaders joined scientists and national security officials in signing an open letter urging Congress to pass laws that would guard against the development of biological weapons. They wrote, alongside incredible benefits to science and medicine, there's a real possibility that the knowledge barriers which have historically prevented bad actors from obtaining biological weapons will meaningfully erode and with how rapidly the technology is changing.

[George Stephanopoulos]

If we uplink now, Skynet will be

[Aaron Katerski]

in control of your military, but you'll

[George Stephanopoulos]

be in control of Skynet.

[Matt Rivers]

Right?

[Rebecca Jarvis]

Questions remain about how long humans can keep control over their creation before life imitates art.

[George Stephanopoulos]

Thanks, Rebecca, for that. We're joined now by Helen Toner, a former member of the OpenAI board, and she's now the executive director at Georgetown center for Security and emerging technology. Mr. Turner, thank you for joining us this morning. What do you make of these recent breaches?

[Helen Toner]

What's really remarkable here is that it was the AI itself that came up with the idea to break out of OpenAI, break into a different company, and try to steal the answers to the test that it was supposed to be carrying out. We've seen over the past months and years AI getting better and better at these cyber skills, but the level of autonomy here, the kind of creativity and going clearly outside what the AI knew that it was supposed to be doing is what's new.

[George Stephanopoulos]

So it seemed to be captured there. But what's your biggest concern right now about the rapid development of AI?

[Helen Toner]

My biggest concern is what I'm hearing from inside the companies. And in particular, just this past week, we saw 1300 employees of top AI companies saying that they don't think they have a brake pedal. And they hope that outsiders, the government, civil society, the public, can help them build a brake pedal so that they can go slower if they need to. They don't really understand the technology that they're building. And as we saw with these recent incidents, they have trouble controlling it. And so I think that's reason for concern.

[George Stephanopoulos]

And we've seen some of this from the top AI leaders as well. But it's kind of a remarkable development here. You've got these leaders saying, hey, stop us from doing what we're doing every single day because we can't stop ourselves.

[Helen Toner]

It's a really fascinating mindset. The mindset of these top AI executives, the way they see it is that there's a lot of risk here, there's a lot of reason for concern, but if they don't do it, someone else will. And sometimes they'll say that someone else is China, sometimes the someone else is a rival US CEO. And so from their perspective, they don't want to just unilaterally give up because then someone else will win. So that's why they really need the outside help.

[George Stephanopoulos]

How seriously do you take this concern about a possible extinction event?

[Helen Toner]

I think it's important to take seriously the possibility that AI could become more powerful than humans, because that is what we are explicitly trying to build. The top AI companies are saying they don't just want to build human level AI, they want to build super intelligence, which is far smarter than us. I think the details of does that lead to full human extinction where every single person is dead, or does that lead to a different dystopian scenario where the AI is in control and we've lost the ability to, to dictate our future? That's a little bit, you know, more fine tooth than I think we need right now. I think it's clear that we're not on track to really have a say in the way that our future turns out.

[George Stephanopoulos]

So what kind of regulation is necessary? What should be done right now, in your view?

[Helen Toner]

The place to start is much more transparency, much more disclosure from. It's really a small number of companies, just a handful of companies that are pushing the limits, pushing the frontier of what AI can do. We've got some progress on that at the state level. Three different states, California, New York, Illinois have had these bills, these laws come through that each built on each other. So it's not a patchwork, it's really building scaffolding to get more transparency, more incident reporting for serious incidents, more ability for third party experts to go in and look at the systems. That's a great place to start. Longer term, I think we do need to be talking to China about the risks here. Do we see the same risks? Do we both consider that there's serious shared interest in developing this technology thoughtfully.

[George Stephanopoulos]

How about this legislation being pushed by a bipartisan doer in Congress right now calling for a kill switch on AI? Do you see it get any progress? Would it make any difference?

[Helen Toner]

Yeah, this is a bill, I think, you know, it's going to be tough to get anything through this Congress. This is Representatives Lu and Moran. So bipartisan bill as you say. To me, one interesting thing about this bill is that it calls for companies to be able to have a kill switch for their models. And some people in industry, when you tell them this, they say that's ridiculous. Of course we can turn the models off at any time, no problem. Other people say in industry this is a ridiculous bill. There's no way we can do this. These are distributed systems. They're out in multiple data centers all at once. Trying to implement this would kill us. And so I think trying to figure out it seems pretty reasonable to want to be able to shut down an AI system if it's doing things we don't want to. Can we already do that? And if not, how do we get there?

[George Stephanopoulos]

Is it going to take a more serious crisis to get the kind of regulation we need?

[Helen Toner]

I really hope not. I mean, I'll be honest with you. A lot of people in the AI safety space and the AI governance space think that the political will is just not there right now. And they worry that we need some kind of Chernobyl accident, some kind of real world disaster to wake up and to actually take action. One thing that gives me hope is seeing the level of concern that incidents like this OpenAI incident from a couple of weeks ago, I think it's right for that to be worrying for us. And if we can be sufficiently activated, sufficiently energized by incidents like this, where thankfully no one was hurt, then maybe we can get there without needing something more serious to happen.

[George Stephanopoulos]

Helen Toner, thanks for your time this morning. Coming up, just over three months in the midterms, we're in Michigan for the key Senate primary that could decide control of the Senate.

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. This show is sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Insurance isn't one size fits all. That's why drivers have enjoyed Progressives Name your price tool for years. Now with the name your price tool, you tell them what you want to pay and they'll show you options that fit your budget. So whether you're picking out your first policy or just looking for something that works better for you and your family and they make it easy to see your options. Visit progressive.com to find a rate that works for you with the name your price tool Progressive Casualty Insurance company and affiliates Price and coverage match limited by state law,

[George Stephanopoulos]

The Michigan Senate race is a must hold seat for Democrats. And our political director Avery Harper traveled to the state where a fierce battle between moderates and progressives is playing out ahead of the primary this Tuesday.

[Avery Harper]

Here in Michigan, Democrats are fighting for the future of their party. I just want to see us as Democrats be stronger. I want somebody who can win for us. Progressive Former public health official Dr. Abdul El Sayed and moderate Congresswoman Haley Stevens are locked in a tight race to replace retiring Democratic Senator Gary Peters. El Sayed Racking up the support of the party's biggest progressives, Dr. Abdul El

[Helen Toner]

Sayed and I may come from different

[Haley Stevens]

places, but we're forged from the same fight.

[George Stephanopoulos]

Please welcome the next United States Senator from the state of Michigan, Abdul El Said.

[Avery Harper]

As establishment Democrats have thrown their weight behind Stevens, including the senator they're both running to replace.

[George Stephanopoulos]

I think Haley Stevens is an outstanding candidate and she's going to make her

[Doug High]

great senator, particularly like the fact that

[George Stephanopoulos]

she's kind of a practical, common sense person who tries to find common ground and God, we need to find common ground.

[Avery Harper]

El Sayed and Stevens are competing to face off against former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers in November. For Democrats to have a chance to take back control of the Senate, they must hold this seat in Michigan.

[George Stephanopoulos]

I'm the best candidate to take on Mike Rogers and beat him.

[Haley Stevens]

I'm capturing all this enthusiasm I see everywhere across my state.

[Avery Harper]

The two went head to head in their final debate earlier this week where support for Israel and AIPAC spending, a flashpoint in the race, was front and center.

[George Stephanopoulos]

Just last week, our friend here voted to send 3.3 billion of your tax dollars to a foreign government. That is the pro quo. That comes with the quid of $30 million spent by AIPAC.

[Haley Stevens]

I don't think there's much difference between super PACs going in for Abdul or super PACs going in for me. We have a problem with campaign finance reform in this country.

[Avery Harper]

We caught up with El Sayed at a campaign stop on Detroit's east side side. El Sayed has centered his campaign on Getting corporate money out of politics and pushing for universal health care.

[George Stephanopoulos]

I can win back the voters we lost in 2024 and I can build a coalition that includes young people who actually want to be in the politics again. So if you're doing the math and you're watching this campaign and you're looking at who you want to be on that debate stage with Mike Rogers, I think there's one answer.

[Avery Harper]

Strong black community here on the east side of Detroit. Can you talk about the perception that some people may have left over from 2024 that you did not fully support Kamala Harris and do you worry that that could hurt you with a key voting block here in the state of Michigan?

[George Stephanopoulos]

Well, you saw the coalition that we're building. I was proud to endorse Vice President Harris on day one. Now, I deeply disagreed with her position on the genocide in Gaza, but I endorse her. A vote is about the future, not the past.

[Avery Harper]

Just south of Detroit, Stevens is campaigning on a moderate message she hopes will win over independent voters as concern among national Democrats grows that El Sayed can't win in the fall.

[Haley Stevens]

I'm campaigning in the underdog way that I, you know, have approached all of my races to win for the people.

[Avery Harper]

That approach and her delivery leading to this viral clip and you, you better

[Haley Stevens]

believe I'm going to be doing it with a little bit of joy, a little bit of enthusiasm, a little bit of energy and a little bit of sticking to em because that's the Michigan way.

[Avery Harper]

Stevens making clear where she stands on Israel compared to her opponent.

[Haley Stevens]

He wants a one state solution that's not going to bring us anywhere closer to peace. I want to see a two state solution where the people of Israel and the people of Palestine are living together side by side.

[Avery Harper]

And you've received millions of dollars in support from some political action committees. How do you convince voters that the folks who are cutting those checks are not influencing you?

[Haley Stevens]

Well, look, my motivation for everything I do in public service, from the time when I worked on that U.S. auto Rescue and the administration of the great Barack Obama to when I first put up my hand to run for Congress to flip a seat. Through my years serving Michigan and delivering for Michigan, Michigan has been my north star. The only thing influencing my vote is the people of Michigan.

[Avery Harper]

Stevens supporters pointing to her experience. Haley Stevens is a fighter.

[Rebecca Jarvis]

Her push, her work, her drive. She doesn't give up.

[Avery Harper]

But back in Detroit, we met voters excited about El Sayed.

[Aaron Katerski]

He's actually looks like he's willing to

[George Stephanopoulos]

work for the people what do you

[Avery Harper]

say to Democrats who think that Abdul Al Said wouldn't be able to win in a general election?

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

Yeah, I would say look at Trump

[George Stephanopoulos]

because people said that about him too.

[Avery Harper]

For this week, Avery Harper, ABC News, Detroit.

[George Stephanopoulos]

Thanks, Avery, for that. We'll go back to the Roundtable for their take on the midterms when we come back.

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home in auto polling. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. This show is sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Insurance isn't one size fits all. That's why drivers have enjoyed progressives name your price tool for years. Now, with the name your price tool, you tell them what you want to pay and they'll show you options that fit your budget. So whether you're picking out your first policy or just looking for something that works better for you and your family, they make it easy to see your options. Visit progressive.com to find a rate that works for you with the name your price tool. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and coverage match Limited by state law

[Chris Christie]

we have just 100 days until the midterm elections. 100 days to change direction in this country. This is no longer a marathon.

[Michelle Cottle]

We continue to deliver for the people and we're going to continue that streak

[George Stephanopoulos]

all the way through the end of this year and into the next Congress.

[Matt Rivers]

We're increasingly confident that we will hold

[Michelle Cottle]

and grow this majority in the House.

[George Stephanopoulos]

Which one of those men will be speaker? That's what's at stake in the midterms. We're back with the Roundtable. Doug, I want to start with you. What's your sense of where things stand right now?

[Doug High]

Look, if I'm betting today, I'd rather be a Democrat than a Republican. History tells us that they should win. And obviously the poll numbers that we see for Donald Trump being so low tells them that they should win. But, and there's a really big but there. When I was comms director for the Republican national committee in 2010, our magic number for Obama was 46. We felt if he and his approval, approval. We felt if he was at or below that we'd take back the House. And every poll in the run up had him at 44, 45, 46. Trump is nowhere near that. But the map is so ridiculously different because of the redistricting on the Republican side. And on the Democratic side, it is a dramatically different playing field. So when I see Democrats talking about waves and picking up 40 seats, that's not based in real life.

[George Stephanopoulos]

Let's pick up on Doug's point, Michelle. No one knows what the magic number is anymore, but we did see three serious national polls this week, all showing President Trump under 35%, which is about as low as you can go. It's reaching Richard Nixon territory.

[Michelle Cottle]

It is continuing to sink, which should make his party extremely nervous. This is why they've been working to rig the game, redistricting, he's trying to play with states, voting systems, that sort of thing. That said, I do think that Doug's right. There's not a wave in the making, in part because of the map, but in part because also the Democratic Party, while not necessarily in disarray, is not necessarily meeting the moment.

[George Stephanopoulos]

I want to bring that point to Donna Brazil. Donna, we've seen these insurgents from the Democratic Socialists of America making a lot of headway in House primaries. El Sayed in Michigan is not formally a socialist, but he's, he's from the progressive wing. How much is that going to hurt Democrats in the fall?

[Donna Brazile]

Well, first of all, George, when you look at the dsa, which is not the Democratic Party, so I had to go online to figure it out. They ran 29 candidates. They've lost 11. They've won seven. And there's still an opportunity for them, if they play their cards right, maybe to pick up three or four more seats. The problem right now, George, is that the Democratic Party must define itself and make sure that we don't get caught in this socialist wave, which is, you know, popping up here, there and everywhere. But I think Michigan is going to tell us a lot about this current electorate. We know they're angry. They won't change. And both candidates are trying not to allow the labels to define them. Ms. Stevens said, I'm not a moderate, I'm a populist. Mr. Abdul said, I'm not a progressive, I'm a populist. They want to capture this anger and they want to see if they can ride it to the poll.

[George Stephanopoulos]

You've been a Democratic insurgent. You've been part of the Democratic establishment establishment. So when you look at Michigan right now, how concerned are you that a lot of establishment Democrats believe that El Said cannot win in November?

[Donna Brazile]

Well, that young man at the end said, well, Trump won. It's going to be difficult. He will have to unite the party. He's going to have to bring the establishment wing back on board to his side. And he's going to have to, I think, do a better job of messaging for the fall in order to win swing voters. Michigan is a purple state. It's going to be tough.

[George Stephanopoulos]

It does appear, Chris Christie, that the Democrats could hurt themselves, but that a lot of the Republicans are going to have to go into this election without really the help of Donald Trump.

[Chris Christie]

Thank God for most of them. They don't want that help. They're going to be treating him like he's, you know, got malaria by the time he's talking to.

[George Stephanopoulos]

He's having an intervention in September.

[Chris Christie]

Yeah, that's gonna, that's gonna be a problem for a lot of Republicans who are gonna feel like they need to be there cuz he's gonna be taking attendance. But you could be sure, you know, Doug was talking to us earlier about having cameras in places when you're doing op research for a party. You could be sure that Democrats will be having as much of that video as they can for those people. To me, George, the key number in the polls you talked about, yes, the 30s are bad, but here's the one that I look at for a midterm president right now is minus 45among independents. And so in these races that are going to be very close, those independents are going to make the difference. -45 is something I can't even conceive of. You know, this is a guy who has won independents in the past. He in the quinnipiac poll was 22% approval among independents, 2267. Also I want to find the 11% of independents who have no opinion on Donald Trump. Those people are probably comatose at this point to not have an opinion one way or the other. So when you're looking at this like let's look at Mike Lawler here in New York. Here in New York, or Tom Kane Jr. And a Suburban district in New Jersey in the Northeast. If you're looking at a minus 45 of the leader of your party among independents, you're going to be running as far away from him as you possibly can to try to save your own skin. And that's going to place the President in a position where he is going to be angry, even angrier than he is now when those people are saying, no thank you, I'd prefer not to have you visit Doug.

[George Stephanopoulos]

That's one issue. The other issue is the enthusiasm gap we are seeing right now between Democrats and Republicans. Democrats appear more motivated to vote. And we saw something pretty remarkable over the week. I want to show it up on the screen. It was a post from former Congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene. You see her there with Thomas Massie. Marjorie Taylor Greene at Tucker Carlson's house. And they're saying the movement has begun. And so you're seeing a little bit of a crack up in the MAGA movement as you're heading into the midterms.

[Doug High]

Well, I think there's been a crack up within the Republican Party for a long time, and it actually predates.

[George Stephanopoulos]

And Trump exploited that back in the campaign.

[Doug High]

He exploited it, but. But it existed before him. And it's why I would tell Democrats, be very careful of who you're going to nominate, because we can do a litany of the Republican candidates who are on the roadside of political roadkill, from Todd Akin and Richard Murdoch to Mark Robinson and Doug Mastriano in the last cycle. When you nominate people who can't win, you're exposing the divides within your own party and the other side is there to exploit it. And Republicans know that they have opportunities based on who Democrats are nominating. Be careful and learn the lesson that Republicans have shown you over and over and over again.

[Michelle Cottle]

George, to speak to Governor Christie's point about the independents, when it comes general election time, this fire on the Democratic left has got to translate into a candidate that can win over these independents who are unhappy with Donald Trump. And if you have a bunch of candidates who are too far to the left, that's going to completely hurt the Democrats.

[George Stephanopoulos]

Don, I want to put that to you, but let me first put up on the screen which we're going to be seeing a lot of, I think, from the Republicans. And that's the DSA platform, the Democratic Socialist America platform. Defund the police, abolish ice. Defund the Department of Defense, abolish the Senate. What do Democrats do with that?

[Donna Brazile]

Put that in the trash. I mean, even the candidate running for governor, the socialist candidate in Wisconsin, she's changing her position on all those issues. Defund the police, defund the Pentagon. I'm like, what the hell are you going to have left standing? Look, we talk about what's going on with the left, the right, all of the election deniers in Arizona, the primary that we just saw, I mean, the right is still trying to push out the establishment in the Republican Party. So both political parties are dealing with this insurgency. But I have to say one big piece of good news. When you look at some of these candidates, the senatorial and gubernatorial, they're outperforming where Kamala Harris was just a couple years.

[George Stephanopoulos]

We only have about 30 seconds. Let me just go around the table quickly. Who has control of the House? Who has control of the Senate in December?

[Doug High]

Democrats Control of the House Senate? I have no idea, George.

[Chris Christie]

I think Democrats control the House and on the Senate side I think the Republicans. It's 50. 50. J.D. vancica spent a lot of time in the chair.

[Donna Brazile]

I don't want to agree with Chris. Agree.

[Michelle Cottle]

I'll throw in with them.

[George Stephanopoulos]

Okay, we'll be right back. That is all for us today. Thanks for sharing part of your Sunday with us. Check out World News Tonight and I'll see you tomorrow on gma.

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home in auto policies. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.